This Little Piggy Went To The Market........

Of the two feeder pigs, one has met it's destiny today. The soul reason for him to live was to provide food for us. He actually turned out to be a cool pig. 

We got him up to about 230 pounds. I did not want him any bigger because of the quality of the meat. Anything above 250 and you get more fat and it cost more to process. 

All of the meat will be cured and smoked right here where he was raised. 

Here is the cost analyses:

Pig - $50.00

Feed bought -  $107.00 (not including scraps from the gardens and the kitchen)

Processing - $85.00

Total invested = $242.00 or $2.20 per pound of processed meat. 

(Prices are as close as I can get from calculated estimations and some record keeping) 

This also does not include man hours and about 20 gallons of water a day.

I got one more pig to go. Her date is at the end of the month, but I don't know if she will be ready. I might have to keep her one more month.    

I pull this bucket of vegetables from the garden every two days.

The Spotlights On Wee

This week the spotlight is back on my youngest daughter "Wee"
If you are wondering how she got the name Wee, it is because she was the smallest of the three girls and from the beginning we always called her wee, wee. She said she has outgrown that name and doesn't like it so now we shortened it to just Wee. I guess it's more grown up.

Look at that big'o belt buckle would you!

The big County Youth Show was this week and Wee got to show her pig. If you remember, this is the same pig that had a real bad cut and we were not sure it would even survive. Avocado, (that's the pigs name) did heal. It took us going up there every day and washing the wound out and redressing it, but it healed.

For a free pig he did pretty good taking fifth in his class, better than I expected. We sold him for market there at the show and now we have one less mouth to feed. It is hard to let a show animal you spend so much time with go like that but Wee knows that's what it's all about. She said it is easier to just eat them.

I told her we are done. The teacher, the showing of large animals, I am done with it all. If you have been reading for a while then you know how much trouble we have had with this teacher and the cost to raise a large show animal is more than I am willing to dish out. Wee accepted it said she did not want to either.

Yesterday she came home from the show and was all excited and said next year she is showing a steer.
What part of large animal did she not understand.      

Drive On Wee

 Despite the injury to her pig the youngest girl, (wee) that's what we call her, went ahead and showed.

She already knew what the outcome would be before stepping into the ring, but she pushed on.

"I have came this far daddy, I'm not backing out now even if I have to carry him in there."

She showed with her head held high and was proud to receive her forth place ribbon.

Her three rabbits took First, Second, Third, Grand Champion and Reserve Grand.


Good job Wee, Drive on.

Why?

The night before the show and while shearing the pig, he gashed himself on the watering nipple.
We doused  the wound in some stuff to keep it from getting infected and tried to superglue it shut. The cut is in the back rump area and every time the pigs steps, it opens back up.

A nipple water is a device where the pig can suck on and fresh water comes out. It has a little guard around the bottom to keep it from getting knocked off and leak everywhere. When the pig was getting a hair cut he jumped and ran right along the nipple and it sliced him wide open.
A freak accident. I have never heard it happening before.

Now the pig cannot be showed.

It Is Hard To Soar With Eagles When You Are Surrounded By Turkeys

As a young kid I remember that saying from when my dad had it posted on the wall of his shop. I never really knew what it meant back then and one day when I was a little older it just hit me.

To get you up to speed on this topic a couple of months ago my youngest daughter wanted a show pig for one of her FFA projects. I told her she had enough animals and things to show but if she wanted another project to bake a pie or something. Being I know who her father is and how she inherited a stubborn streak wider than the Red River from her momma, it did not surprise me she found a way to get a pig.
It seams a local breeder had a couple of show pigs he was donating to the FFA for the kids to show. She put her name in the hat and got one. Now our feed bill has that high dollar show feed added to it.

Now that you are up to speed I will continue. The pig that she got was uncut. The FFA teacher said she had a vet that will cut all the pigs and will have it done before Christmas. The Christmas break came and went and the pig still had his manhood. Several un-returned phone calls later we finally got a hold of the teacher and she said it would cost us to get him cut. Of course I was mad by now because if she would have told us that a month ago then I would have done it myself. Now the pig is 150 pounds.

Last night the teacher called and asked if we wanted the pig cut. The wife reminded her that we wanted him cut over a month ago and about all the unanswered phone calls to her. The kind teacher said she did not know and thought we were going to keep him a boar. (This is the part where it is hard to soar with Eagles)

I could understand if the local FFA had 500 students but there are only 20. You know I don't mind cutting pigs but being this one was not mine and if something was to go wrong then I would be blamed for it. After all, when I was in FFA it was a field trip for all the students to go out to the farms and cut everyone's pigs. It was part of it.

I met her up at the pig barn last night and got it done. I have never cut one this big and hope it will be okay. At over 150 pounds he did not want this to happen and it took some doing.
I told the teacher I did not know what she was thinking by letting him get this big and asked where she came up with the thought I wanted him uncut when we have been asking to get him cut for two months.
She did not answer me and was very scattered brained and off topic.
 
This teacher has no business teaching FFA. For the past four years we have had problems with her only chasing the money students and not helping any others. It is no use to complain to anyone because all the people I need to complain to are the money students parents.
Only two more years to go.

Oh The Humanity

When I was younger and we had a pig farm it was not uncommon to cut around twenty pigs a weekend.
At twenty to thirty pounds all I did was grab a little unknowing male piglet, hold him upside down and my Dad would cut, pull and snip. Apply a little blood stop and the next little pig was up. Easy as eating gizzards.

 
Somewhere in the last 25 years it has gotten a lot harder. I don't know if it is age or just being out of practice. It could possibly be that this one was seventy pounds and really did not want to loose his junk.

I posted this picture on facebook and had one response asking why it took four people to do the deed when it only takes them two and one being a girl. 
I tip my hat to her because this little pig kicked my butt.

Early Morning Redneck Humor

U C M PIGS

M R NO PIGS

O S M R PIGS

O NO M R NOT

U C M NOSE, U C M EARS, U C M TAIL

L I B M R PIGS

I Might Have Messed Up On This One

One of the most sought after times of the year for me is Fall/Winter. It is where all the good cooking happens.

Last spring I built a cold smoker so I could smoke my own bacon, hams and sausage. All summer I saw it just sitting there, not being used. I have been biting at the bit for fall to get here so I can finally make my own bacon.




  
Just like all store bought foods, bacon is really not bacon. The pigs that are bred for slaughter are not fed for great tasting meat, they are bred and fed for production and profit.
The store bought bacon is pumped with water to create more poundage. That is the reason the store brand decreases in size so much when you cook it. All you are buying is water with a little meat in it. 

If you do not know, bacon comes from the belly cut of the pig, hence pork belly. There was a time when I could get this cut for almost nothing. Now at best in my area the price is $2.59 a pound. I can buy already cured and smoked cheap bacon at that cost. One meat market says it is because of the fuel prices and another says it is because all those dang cooking shows are driving the price up as a specialty cut.

I searched and called every meat market within 100 miles and the prices were all close to the same.
We are only one generation removed from doing all this ourselves. Most of our grandparents and even our parents always had a hog or two around the farm to feed up for the winter processing, curing and smoking. They new the importance of stocking up and preparing because their life depended on it. Plus the tastes from fresh homegrown meat is so much more favorable than any other you can buy. The old timers say once you had real bacon you will never buy that store bought crap again.

This is where I might have messed up. Being I could not find pork belly at a reasonable price and being I do not like store bought bacon and also being I am almost out of bacon, ham and sausage from our last pig, I bought two more pigs.
Last time I was able to go in halves on a pig with a friend and my half came to me in real nice little packages. I did not have to feed it, water it, kill it or process it. For the money it was a deal I could not pass up. Now I have two more mouths to feed and a bunch of work to do.    

Meet Red Pig and White Pig

This was a rookie mistake. I let my pride get in the way on this decision.
"$2.59 a pound, they can kiss my butt. I will just go buy my own pigs" was my attitude last night driving to the sell.
On the way home it was a little different. I realized I did not have a pen and I did not have a shelter for them, I was completely unprepared.
The first and number one rule in animal husbandry is to be prepared for your new arrivals. If I was to practice what I preach, I would not be shooting from the hip. Needless to say, this weekend will be all about pigs.